


We're All We Have (Brovid Week 2018)

by Forestwater



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Brovid Week 2018, Gen, You know who I'm talking about, canon-compliant character death, i know this was a kinda controversial week but i love this relationship and enjoyed participating, i've just got nothing for those last 3 days, they're good good brothers, unfinished and not going to be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 15:39:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16746766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forestwater/pseuds/Forestwater
Summary: Collection of works from days 1-4 of tumblr's brovid week, which is exactly what it sounds like: a week of celebrating Max and David having a brotherly relationship.Prompts:1. Playing2. Fighting3. Good Influence4. Rivalry





	1. Day 1: Playing

**Author's Note:**

> Moving over from tumblr! All written in July of 2018.

“Okay, Max, I can see why you’d think that was a good move, but now all I have to do is move my knight  _here_ , and –”

“God, this is boring.” Max slumped onto the table, dropping his head into his folded arms and nearly upsetting the chessboard. “How the fuck did you find something even worse than  _Monopoly_?”

David frowned, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “Well, if you want to go join the others, I’m sure we can –”

“No way. At least this is quiet.” He sat up just enough to see the board, propping his head in one hand and eyeing the pieces lazily. “Can’t believe you still think Board Game Camp is a good idea. Every year someone gets bashed over the head with  _Candyland_.”

“That’s not true!” he said, moving his pawn to a spot where Max could easily destroy him. (It was a  _little_  true, but that wasn’t a very optimistic attitude!)

He tried not to smile as Max knocked his piece off the board. “Eat shit, camp man!” he crowed – his face immediately falling as David took the opportunity to seize his now-vulnerable bishop, setting it carefully on his side of the table. “Hey, what the fuck? That’s not allowed.”

David gave him a wide-eyed look. “I sure think it is!” As Max grabbed the tattered rulebook sitting at their feet and began flipping through it, David reminded himself to let Max win.

Or at least, to make it a close game if he couldn’t resist. He did enjoy winning.

Gwen stumbled into the Mess Hall, a playing piece stuck in her ponytail. (David felt a little bad that he was having such a nice time inside while she was dealing with the rest of the campers, but she’d been the one to insist she didn’t want to learn chess.) “How’re you doing?” she asked, ruffling Max’s hair as she walked past them into the kitchen. “Ready to kill David yet?”

Max flapped his hand at her in irritation but otherwise didn’t respond, glancing from the book to the board and back again with the tip of his tongue poking out.

She stopped on the way back, balancing an armful of water bottles and watching Max curiously. “Getting into it?” She addressed the question to both of them, something close to a smile twitching at her lips. “Never thought I’d meet someone as boring as David, but if you two are gonna start up a chess club …”

“Bitch,” Max muttered absently, scowling as he set the book aside. He lowered his head until his eyes were level with the pieces, glaring at them like they’d personally wronged him. “This game is fucking stupid.  _Ha!”_

He snatched up a rook and bashed away another of David’s pawns, making the table shake with how violently he slammed his own down. Crossing his arms on the table, he leaned on them, shooting David a self-satisfied smirk.

“Fucking beat  _that_.”

“I …” David frowned. That … was a very good move. Huh. “Gosh-darnit.”

“Take your ‘goshdarnit’ and shove it up your ass with all those pawns I killed!”

Gwen rolled her eyes and walked away. “Have fun, nerds.”

Neither of them looked up from the board.


	2. Day 2: Fighting

For once, Max actually hadn’t been trying to be a dick to David. That was the most unfair part: he was trying to be the  _good_ guy, here.

“Max, this isn’t like you.” David crossed his arms, his face reddening. “And frankly I’m going to have a talk with Gwen, because clearly those scary movies have had a terrible effect on you campers!”

“I’m not making this up!” Max snapped back. Why had he let Neil and Nikki convince him this was a good idea? Stupid self-righteous pricks with their stupid puppy-dog eyes and his own stupid conscience letting them guilt-trip him … “It wasn’t a dream, it wasn’t a fever, I wasn’t drunk or crazy or tired or whatever you think. I  _saw_ Jasper, okay? Nikki and Neil did, too! He’s fucking  _dead_.”

Dead, and no one but three kids and a con man (who was now probably bear food) knew it.

Yeah, fuck his friends. This had been a terrible idea. And fuck  _him_  for thinking for a second that it wasn’t.

“Why would I think you were drunk?” David demanded, starting to look exasperated.

Max shrugged and looked down at the ground. “That’s not important. Anyway, it’s true. Go to Spooky Island and see for yourself.”

David stared at him for a moment, eyes slowly widening. Then in an instant something shutters closed in his expression, his mouth going flat. “This isn’t your imagination.”

He shook his head, surprised at how much of a relief it was. Of  _course_. This was David, who’d never sincerely doubted anything in his life. It was one of the most stupid, obnoxious things about him. “I know it sounds crazy, but I –”

“Max.” The dullness in David’s voice shut him up, his mouth snapping shut immediately. “How long have you been planning this?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

He ran a hand through his hair, making his stupid pouf stick up. It made him look … weird. Disheveled. Not-David. “I only told you about my fight with Jasper a few days ago. And I thought – it seemed like we’ve been getting along so much better.”

“No we fucking haven’t!” he said reflexively, realizing too late that maybe now wasn’t the time to get annoyed at David treating him like a pet project. He forced himself to take a deep breath, because after all  _he_ was the one who had a hard sell, here. “This isn’t some stupid prank, David, I really did –”

“Are your friends waiting on Spooky Island? To … jump out at me? Or did you three build some sort of trap?” He shook his head, his eyes on the ground between their feet. “You’re very smart, Max. I know you know there are some things you shouldn’t joke about.”

“Good thing I’m not joking then! It was a pretty serious existential crisis at the time, y’know.” Max’s hand clenched into fists inside the pocket of his hoodie, and he wondered if he could get Neil and Nikki to drag David to the island. He wondered if Jasper would even show up, or if they’d gotten lucky the nights they found him. He probably should’ve done more research into this whole ghost thing. Not like he had an internet connection … unless he stole David’s phone again. “He’s like ten year old and dresses like a fucking nerd, even worse than Neil, like he’s got this purple shirt under one of those stupid ugly yellow camper’s shirts that haven’t been washed in thirty years, and his shorts have … shapes on them? Triangles, maybe? And this long floppy yellow hair –”

David sighed. “You’ve seen his picture on the bulletin board, fine. I’m proud of how much work you’ve put into this, but it’s really not fair to –”

“He said something about light-up shoes!” Max blurted out desperately, wishing yet again that he’d brought the others to back him up. Neil’s memory was way better than his, and Nikki … well, she and David just got along; she didn’t get pissed off as often as he and Neil did. “LA something, I think? Like … LA shoes? Shoes from LA, I don’t remember, I wasn’t really listening to him but –”

He froze, his face paling. “Where did you learn about those? Did the Quartermaster –”

 _“Will you stop fucking interrupting me?!”_  he snarled, striding forward like he could intimidate David despite being half his height. “Do you seriously think I’d pull something that shitty?” He wasn’t that bad a kid.

Sure, he’d tried to knock David’s head in with a rock once or twice, but he wasn’t a monster. And David seemed like one of the few people who got that.

“I didn’t.” The tense, shaky energy dropped from him all at once, his shoulders slumping. “That’s why I’m so disappointed.” He shouldered past Max and out of the cabin, pausing in the door without looking back. “Go back to your tent. You should get some rest.”

As soon as the door closed, Max flopped into the counselor’s armchair.

That’s what he got for trying to be the good guy.


	3. Day 3: Good Influence

David grabbed Max’s elbow, snagging his hood in his free hand and hauling him back. “ _Max!_ You can’t – sir, I’m very …”

He stopped mid-apology. Because the thing was, he  _wasn’t_  all that sorry, not even though Max was still struggling in his arms, trying to get at the stranger crumpled on the ground holding his stomach.

“Are you fucking  _kidding_  me?” Max snapped. He turned his rage in David’s direction, and it took all of his years of camp counselor practice not to flinch. It was like a physical force, almost as powerful as the punch that had knocked a grown man over. “You heard what he called Gwen!”

He had.

And that was certainly part of the reason why he wasn’t sorry. “That’s not the point,” he said quickly. “No matter what hurtful –”  _(appalling, disgusting)_  “– things someone says –”  _(to his coworker and his friend, one of the best people he knew who didn’t deserve to be called a )_  “– violence is never the solution to these kinds of problems!”

Max rolled his eyes. “ _Sure_. We only beat people up when they’re dating our exes, not when they’re gross pieces of shit.” He kicked at the ground and muttered, “Like I needed another reason to hate this place. Middle-of-nowhere backwoods …”

His grumblings faded to the back of David’s mind, washed away by a wave of cold, prickling nausea. “Oh my gosh, I’m a  _terrible_  influence,” he murmured. He’d been encouraging violence this whole time?

What if Max joined a gang because David accidentally taught him fighting was cool?! What if he robbed a bank?!  _What if —_

“Hey!” Having recovered his breath, the man lumbered to his feet, glaring at them. “Teach your kid some fucking manners, you psychopaths!” He then provided a string of words much like the ones that had started this in the first place; David’s hand instinctively tightened on Max’s arm before he could break away and lunge at the stranger again.

To his surprise, though, Max’s anger seemed to have cooled. He just sighed heavily and was quiet as they joined the rest of the campers at the waiting bus, tugging away as soon as he saw his friends.

“What happened?” Neil asked, standing on his tiptoes and peering around nervously, as though they might be rushed by an angry mob. “We lost you over by Muffin Tops.”

“Did you see any boobs?” Nikki asked. (It was a fascination she’d developed since the last summer, and one David wasn’t really sure how to handle. She was convinced they could inflate and be used to fly, for one thing, and there weren’t enough Science Camps in the world to convince him to have that conversation.)

Max shrugged with all the practiced nonchalance of a preteen, shoving his hands in his pockets and leaning back against the bus. “Nothing special. Just some asshole.” His eyes flicked over in the counselors’ direction, and David pretended to be very interested in something on his phone. Dropping his voice slightly, Max continued, “but you remember that uppercut David did that sent Bonquisha’s boyfriend flying? Okay, I’m not tall enough to do that – stupid prepubescent legs – but I  _nailed_  this guy right in his racist fatass gut!”

“Cool!” Nikki leapt onto Neil, wrapping her arms around his head and her legs around his neck. “Show us! If I stand on Neil’s shoulders we’ll be tall enough, right? You can show us how you did it!”

Neil squawked, shoving her away. “Nikki, no! I don’t want him to hit  _me!”_

She rolled her eyes, another habit she’d developed over the last year. “Fine, you can stand on  _my_  shoulders. I can take a hit!”

“Nah, look. I was standing like this, and just –” He mimed the punch, moving closer to help Nikki position her fingers as she jumped off Neil and tried to copy him. David had to admit that, while this was certainly something to be discouraged as soon as they got back to camp, Max’s form was rather impressive.

Apparently he’d been paying attention during Cobat Camp (they really needed to remember to add the “m” back into the title). Maybe even practicing.

Both embarrassed and a little proud, he turned his attention to the rest of the campers. Enough eavesdropping.

Max was doing just fine.


	4. Day 4: Rivalry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, I invented an OC and crammed her into this fic. Kayla Sahni is Max's older sister; David's age more or less, wildly irresponsible and idealistic, and essentially Max's favorite person in the world. She's mentioned a bit in _Tigger & Eeyore: Camp Campbell and Beyond_, and will be playing a larger role in that story as it unfolds. This isn't quite within the same universe, but it's definitely very closely adjacent.

Gwen claimed David was too invested in this rivalry, but was it really a rivalry if none of the other people involved  _knew_  it was?

Besides, it wasn’t like David had any ill will toward Max’s sister. In fact, he’d been delighted to hear that the two of them had moved to the same city he and Gwen lived in! Of course, the circumstances were tragic; no child should have to lose their parents at such a young age. But David had lost track of most of his campers after they’d aged out of the camp – except for Nikki, but she was a born counselor with nature in her blood – and he’d worried about Max in particular. He’d always been especially curious what kind of family a kid like that would have, and when the opportunity came to get to know them both a little better, he was more than happy to take it.

Kayla Sahni was just two years younger than David, and the resemblance to her little brother was really uncanny. She was shorter than both himself and Gwen, but that was taller than Max was ever likely to grow, and she had a strong, stocky build instead of his perpetual lankiness. But they had the same eyes, and more than once he’d been struck with the impression that he was looking at a future version of Max. It only ever lasted for a second; Kayla had a perpetual brightness that Max lacked – or perhaps was missing the pessimism that darkened Max’s edges. She laughed and cried easily, while her little brother did neither, and had a hummingbird-like tendency to pick up and drop passions as they caught or lost her interest. In comparison, the dour little teenager his most troublesome camper had grown into was steady (and immovable) as a rock.

It was this last thing that stuck with David, that needled at him with little pricks of irritation. Because Max really didn’t need any more unreliable people in his life.

“Hello, Max,” he said, carefully measuring the cheer in his tone. It was inappropriate to act too cheerful in this situation, at three in the morning in a police station, but he didn’t want to come across as too stern. As Gwen had reminded him more than a few times, it wasn’t his place. He wasn’t Max’s legal guardian, he wasn’t an older brother. He was just a former camp counselor (and technically his Facebook friend, not that kids were really using the site anymore) who was sometimes called upon –

He grunted, sliding into the passenger seat with a heavy sigh. “Yeah,” he muttered, in response to nothing, and turned to look out the window. His sweatshirt was streaked with neon paint.

– called upon to provide bail and a ride home, when Max got himself into trouble and his sister was nowhere to be found.

“Gwen says hi,” David continued, trying to keep the silence from spiraling. “And that she hopes you’re doing well.”

Max snorted. “Bullshit. She probably said something like if I wake her up in the middle of the night again, she’ll light my hair on fire.”

That … was in fact a little closer to the truth, but Max didn’t need to hear that. His wife was not exactly a morning person. “So how’s your big sister?” he asked instead, as nonchalantly as he could.

“I dunno. Her phone must be dead and she hasn’t been around for a couple days.” He shrugged, leaning his seat back and propping his feet up on the dashboard. (David resisted the urge to tell him how dangerous that was and just focused on driving extra carefully.) “Probably doing something stupid and dangerous, like usual. Fucking idiot.” The warmth in his tone made him smile, but it still tugged at his heart that Max was so often left by himself.

Especially after what happened to his parents, shouldn’t he be surrounded by his family?

“Max, if you ever need to talk to someone, you know I –”

He was interrupted by the almost-imperceptible vibrations of Max’s phone. He jumped slightly and tugged it out of his pocket, the screen lighting his skin a sickly white-yellow. “Kay? Where the hell are you?” he demanded, a huge grin spreading across his face as he bolted upright. “I got arrested again!”

Despite his disapproval, David struggled not to smile. It was just so rare to see Max enthusiastic about anything. It made him seem his age, instead of someone so much older and more jaded.

“Yeah, I was painting shit on the city hall for the protest tomorrow. You’re gonna be there, right?” There was a moment of silence. “Oh, yeah. Nah, that makes sense. I probably won’t go either. What’s the point, right? Not like it’s gonna do anything.” Another quiet moment. “You would? Really? Huh … I mean, I  _might_  show up for a little bit. If I don’t find something better to do.” He groaned, flopping back in his seat. “Yeah, yeah, I’m studying. God, you’re almost as bad as David and Gwen.”

David really didn’t want to interrupt, not when these conversations were so important – and didn’t happen nearly often enough, in his own personal opinion – but his exit was coming up so he didn’t have much of a choice. “Um, Max? Are you staying over tonight?” They kept a few pairs of Max’s clothing and an extra toothbrush in their guest bedroom; neither he nor Gwen liked the idea of him sitting home alone for however long Kayla’s frequent “adventures” lasted. Sometimes she was gone for days without so much as a text telling her brother where she was.

_Stop being judgmental. They’ve both lost their parents. It hasn’t even been a year yet._

Max glanced up at him, surprised. “Hold on,” he muttered into the phone, then lowered it from his ear. “Uh, yeah. Sure. Thanks.”

He had just a second to enjoy that warm glow – genuine appreciation! From Max! – when Max returned his attention to his phone.

“Sorry about that. Nah, just David.”

_Just David._

Gwen would tell him he was overreacting. She thought he was way too invested in this silly rivalry, that he had to stop thinking of himself as Max’s older brother or he was just going to get his feelings hurt.

But was it really a rivalry if he didn’t have any chance of winning?


End file.
